It is well known that the performance of the classical Markowitz model for portfolio optimization is extremely sensitive to estimation errors on the expected asset returns. Robust optimization mitigates this issue. We focus on ellipsoidal uncertainty sets around a point estimate of the expected asset returns. An important issue is the choice of the parameters … Read more
Decomposition using consensus ADMM can be used to allow parallelization efficiencies or for reasons related to information security. In either case,the input data may be uncertain and we give a decomposition algorithm. ArticleDownload View PDF
Adjustable robust optimization (ARO) is a powerful tool to model problems that have uncertain data and that feature a two-stage decision making process. Computationally, they are often addressed using the column-and-constraint generation (CCG) algorithm introduced by Zhao and Zeng in 2012. While it was empirically shown that the algorithm scales well if all second-stage decisions … Read more
We consider linear combinatorial optimization problems under uncertain disruptions that increase the cost coefficients of the objective function. A decision-maker, or planner, can invest resources to probe the components (i.e., the coefficients) in order to learn their disruption status. In the proposed probing optimization problem, the planner, knowing just the disruptions’ probabilities, selects which components … Read more
Watson and Woodruff (2011) developed a heuristic for computing variable-dependent values of the penalty parameter $\rho$ from the model itself. We combine this heuristic with a gradient-based method, in order to obtain a new method for calculating $\rho$ values. We then introduce a method for iteratively computing variable-dependent $\rho$ values. This method is based on … Read more
In the context of optimization under uncertainty, we consider various combinations of distribution estimation and resampling (bootstrap and bagging) for obtaining samples used to acquire a solution and for computing a confidence interval for an optimality gap. This paper makes three experimental contributions to on-going research in data driven stochastic programming: a) most of the … Read more
The stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) algorithm introduced by Pereira and Pinto in 1991 has sparked essential research in the context of water resources management, mainly due to its ability to address large-scale multistage stochastic problems. This paper aims to provide a tutorial-type review of 32 years of research since the publication of the SDDP … Read more
In this work, we design primal and dual bounding methods for multistage adaptive robust optimization (MSARO) problems motivated by two decision rules rooted in the stochastic programming literature. From the primal perspective, this is achieved by applying decision rules that restrict the functional forms of only a certain subset of decision variables resulting in an … Read more
Bilevel optimization is a powerful tool for modeling hierarchical decision making processes. However, the resulting problems are challenging to solve – both in theory and practice. Fortunately, there have been significant algorithmic advances in the field so that we can solve much larger and also more complicated problems today compared to what was possible to … Read more
Bilevel optimization is a very active field of applied mathematics. The main reason is that bilevel optimization problems can serve as a powerful tool for modeling hierarchical decision making processes. This ability, however, also makes the resulting problems challenging to solve—both in theory and practice. Fortunately, there have been significant algorithmic advances in the field … Read more